Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Did you know that you can make your own putty for cementing your leaded glass windows? Now you won't have to keep buying those little (and usually sort of dried out) pre-made putty containers at your local glass supplier since this recipe, my personal recipe, that I am sharing with you allows you to continually make any amount of fresh putty. It stores well too.

I like to use a plastic bucket that has a lid that can seal well. The buckets you get at your local home improvement store are excellent. I use a paint stir stick to mix the ingredients.

In your plastic bucket add the whiting first. Do this in a well ventilated area since the whiting is very fine powder. Add linseed oil to the whiting and stir with the wooden paint stir stick so that the whiting is no longer powdery. I like to add enough linseed oil to the whiting so that it has the consistency of thick putty. I then add Japan drier to this mixture, sparingly. I use much more linseed oil than Japan drier when I mix up my putty. If the putty seems too liquidy, add more whiting to thicken it up.

When I have finished cementing, I put all of my excess putty back into my plastic bucket-(with whatever I haven't used) and stir everything together. I also put the excess whiting that I used when doing my final stage of cementing my window back into the plastic bucket. When you do this a couple of times you will notice that your putty will turn a nice silvery- black color. Occasionally I will add a little turpentine into my bucket to thin out my putty mixture, but I only use a tiny amount of turpentine, since turpentine will eventually eat through a plastic bucket.

When finished, I also use turpentine to clean everything up.

Any time you need more putty, add whiting and the other ingredients into the bucket that already contains the previously mixed putty.

Harrach Glass

Harrach Glass is a glass art studio located in scenic Santa Fe, New Mexico. We offer classes where you can learn how to create your own leaded or foiled stained glass windows! We also make custom stained glass windows locally and sell art glass gifts online.